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The small but growing do-it-yourself (DIY) microscopy community has flourished as researchers strive to overcome the limitations of current microscopic technology. Numerous researchers, including US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute cell biologist Clare Waterman, who is known for using new camera technology to develop a technique called fluorescent speckle microscopy4. Biophysicist Hari Shroff of the US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Section on High Resolution Optical Imaging has contributed to free microscope configuration resources for use by fellow scientists. Read more in Nature.

Scientists are using their increasing knowledge of the complex interaction between cancer and the immune system to engineer increasingly potent anti-cancer vaccines. Now researchers at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have developed a synergistic nanovaccine packing DNA and RNA sequences that modulate the immune response, along with anti-tumor antigens, into one small nanoparticle. The nanovaccine produced an immune response that specifically killed tumor tissue, while simultaneously inhibiting tumor-induced immune suppression. Together this blocked lung tumor growth in a mouse model of metastatic colon cancer.

Hari Shroff, Ph.D., chief of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s lab section on High Resolution Optical Imaging (HROI), and his team have spent the last few years developing optical microscopes that produce high resolution images at very high speed. After his lab develops these new microscopes, they release the plans and software for free, so any researcher can replicate the advances made at NIH. This latest microscope builds on previous improvements that Shroff’s lab had made with selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM).

More than 50 million Americans have food allergies and often just trace amounts of allergens can trigger life-threatening reactions. Now, NIBIB-funded researchers at Harvard Medical School have developed a $40 device that fits on a key chain and can accurately test for allergens, like gluten or nuts, in a restaurant meal in less than 10 minutes.

Researchers funded by NIBIB combined the immune response created by injection of potato virus nanoparticles with the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin to halt melanoma progression in a mouse model. The research is the first demonstration of an immune system anti-tumor response using potato virus nanoparticle vaccination—a novel treatment that was further enhanced when combined with doxorubicin chemotherapy.

Some 40 years since CT scans first revealed abnormalities in the brains of schizophrenia patients, international scientists say the disorder is a systemic disruption to the brain's entire communication system. The study sets the stage for future research on the debilitating mental illness that affects more than 21 million people worldwide. It is the largest analysis of 'white matter' differences in a psychiatric disorder to date. Read more at USC News.

Currently, the only definitive diagnosis for Alzheimer's comes from an autopsy. But a team of sophomores at the University of Maryland, College Park, just won first prize in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) competition for their prototype portable EEG device to diagnose Alzheimer’s.Read more at Forbes.

A flexible ingestible sensor has been devised that could help doctors to diagnose problems caused by a slowdown of food flowing through the digestive tract. The sensors could also be used to detect food pressing on the stomach, helping doctors to monitor food intake by patients being treated for obesity. Read more at MIT News.

Strong molecular bonds between antibodies and biological gels like mucus aren't necessary to catch pathogens as was previously thought, according to new research. In fact, rapid and weak interactions between antibodies and biogels are much better suited to locking down foreign invaders in the body's sticky first line of defense. Read more at Science Newsline Medicine.